NEWS FROM THE STARS. 
385 
may such recession or approach he detected. But, with the 
instrument used by Dr. Huggins four years ago, it was hope- 
less, save in the case of the brilliant Sirius (giving more than 
five times as much light as any other star visible in our northern 
heavens), to look for any displacement due to a lower rate of 
recession than some hundred miles per second (little more than 
the two-thousandth part of the velocity of light). What was to 
be done, then, was to provide a much more powerful telescope, 
so that the stellar-spectra would bear a considerably greater 
degree of dispersion. With admirable promptitude the Royal 
Society devoted a large sum of money to the construction of 
such an instrument, to be lent to Dr. Huggins for the prose- 
cution of his researches into stellar motions of approach and 
recession. This telescope, with an aperture of fifteen inches, 
and a light-gathering power somewhat exceeding that usual 
with that aperture, was accordingly completed, and provided 
with the necessary spectroscopic appliances. Many months 
have not passed since all the arrangements were complete. 
In the meantime, I had arrived at certain inferences re- 
specting the proper motions of the stars, on which Dr. Huggins’s 
researches by the new method seemed likely to throw an im- 
portant light. 
More than three years ago, I had expressed my conviction 
that whenever the recorded proper motions of the stars were 
subject to a careful examination, they would confirm the theory 
I had enunciated, that the stars are arranged in definite aggre- 
gations of various forms — star-groups, star-streams, star-reti- 
culations, star-nodules, and so on.* Making leisure, in the 
summer of 1869, for entering upon such an examination I was 
led to several results, which not only confirmed the above- 
mentioned theory but suggested relations which I had not 
hitherto thought of. Some of these results are discussed in the 
article called “Are there any Fixed Stars,” already referred 
to ; others are presented in an article called “ Star Drift,” in 
the “ Student” for October 1870. The special results on which 
Dr. Huggins’s recent discoveries throw light, were first publicly 
announced in a paper read before the Royal Society, on January 
20, 1870. 
I had constructed a chart in which the proper motions of 
about 1,200 stars were pictured. To each star a minute arrow 
was affixed, the length of the arrow indicating the rate at which 
the star is moving on the celestial vault, while the direction in 
* See u Rotes on Star-Streams,” in the “ Intellectual Observer” for 
August 1867, u Notes on Nebulse,” in “ The Student ” for March 1868,” and 
“ A New Theory of the Universe,” in u The Student ” for February, March, 
and April 1869. 
VOL. XI, — NO. XLV. C C 
